Bonitots

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at the setting happy and separate from their parents with ease. Children feel safe and secure. They develop positive relationships with staff. Children effortlessly engage in conversations with staff and each other in both Spanish and English. Children enjoy an extensive range of activities. For example, older children enjoy singing familiar songs in Spanish and English around the campfire. Children play together cooperatively. For instance, younger children play well during pretend play in the home corner, where they take on different roles and share cups of tea. Children make choices in their play and learning, which helps to develop their confidence. The curriculum is broad and balanced to help build on children's skills and experiences.

Children respond to the high expectations staff have for them all. Children are curious and motivated to learn. They thoroughly engage in a variety of good learning opportunities. Children learn to recognise and understand their emotions from an early age, for example, through stories and colours. As they progress through the nursery, they can be heard telling adults how they feel using colours as representation. Children benefit from the consistent praise for their efforts, achievements, and positive behaviours. They develop high levels of self-esteem as well as positive attitudes to their learning. Younger children have strong bonds with their key person. Older children seek staff out to show their accomplishments and share their ideas. All children confidently approach staff for comfort and reassurance and settle quickly in their attentive care.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Staff have high expectations for children, they provide thoughtful, interesting activities. Staff regularly check children's progress and use the information to ensure that they get the right challenges. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, make good progress.
• Children enjoy a range of activities, inside and outside. Staff help them to broaden their experiences and learn about other people and cultures around the world. For example, during the theme about Britain, children learn about the different buildings around the country. When learning about India they enjoyed Bollywood dancers visiting the nursery.
• Staff teach children some independent self-care skills. For example, older children serve their own meals and drinks and put on coats. However, this approach is not consistent. For instance, some staff do simple tasks for children, such as wiping their noses and putting on aprons. This does not fully extend children's self-care skills.
• Children develop good attitudes to learning. Babies demonstrate good concentration as they use scoops to fill pots with coloured rice. Older children remain engaged as they build a pond in the dinosaur world for the 'naughty' bus and gather leaves to make a salad for the leaf eating dinosaurs.
• Staff model language to children well and increase their vocabulary by talking to them during their play. For instance, as children make a shelter for bees, staff introduce new words, such as beehive and the Spanish word for this, colmena. Staff encourage children to make connections in their learning. For example, staff ask children questions about past experiences they have participated in as they discuss how the door should look for the shelter.
• Overall, children behave very well and are respectful towards one another. Children have good opportunities to form positive relationships with their peers and develop social skills well. They learn to share resources with others during activities and are confident to share their ideas with others in a group. However, on occasions, older children do not listen to staff or follow instructions.
• Parents speak highly about the setting and the support their children receive. They appreciate the daily feedback during handovers. They appreciate their key person's regular updates on their children's progress and level of development via the online app. Parents are confident that their children are happy and safe. Staff share ideas on how parents can support children at home via videos, which parents find particularly useful.
• The management team have set clear priorities for improvement. For example, they provide staff with regular supervisions and observe them interacting with children. Managers understand the strength of the team and offer mentoring, training and make online training videos for staff to access for further support. Staff comment they feel well supported to carry out their role and are keen to access the nursery's professional development programme.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• encourage children to do even more for themselves during their everyday experiences, to further develop their independence
• support older children to develop good listening skills to further enhance their learning.